IBM i

In 2008, IBM released a NEW server platform called Power Systems. It runs virtualized operating systems called AiX and Linux, and a virtualized operating environment called IBM i. Since then, there have been three major OS upgrades to IBM i and 17 major technology refreshes – one every six months. It is a modern platform, designed for business, allows for industry leading security, is scalable, reliable, and runs without disruption for major companies around the world. It includes the world’s leading and most comprehensive SQL DB2 database, and is the best platform for integration of business and IT. IBM i supports modern OSS languages, and is running businesses and web sites all over the planet. All of your AS/400 applications can run on IBM i, with the fastest migration approach than ever before. IBM i on Power Systems has proven to be the cheapest TCA and TCO for running all your business applications. Unlike any other platform, IBM has committed to its future beyond 2027. It is, simply, the platform for business, for today and tomorrow.

Resources

Here is a list of resources that support and promote IBM i in a modern world.

There is too much complaining, whining, moaning, and ego in this community. There is too much laziness, arrogance, narrowmindedness, complacency, and stubbornness.

Certainly, the majority of the community are geniuses, and for the most part, lovely people. Including you.. And geniuses at business, at RPG, at developing applications, and more than likely, in being a parent, sibling, grandparent, and all out nice guy/gal.

Our platform is an operating system. It is called IBM i and runs on Power Systems hardware.

Period.

Nothing else.

That is what IBM sells.

That is what IBM supports.

That is what IBM invests in…

And it has been that way for over EIGHT years – a lifetime in I.T.!

Yet, in our community, the excuses to use old branding, incorrect branding, what-I-feel-like-today branding, and plain ignorant branding is simply nonsense in a world of such genius. Our history is glorious, but promoting the old and outdated brands is ridiculous beyond any measure and does not suit you.

It has been my effort in the last decade, starting with System i, to spread awareness of the current and future branding. I created a blog, included 27 extra bloggers and won an IBM/COMMON Innovation award for my efforts. I created the first IBM i cartoon. I started bringing buttons to conferences (from my own pocket) to promote our platform in 2007, and have continued that every year since. I purchased IBM i stickers and several thousand were distributed around the world. These are all investments in a platform that I consider I am passionate about.

And just imagine if you were an IBMer working in some capacity on IBM i? Imagine the passion and effort you put in to the platform – from hardware to software to applications? If I feel this disheartened with the community, imagine how IBM employees feel with all your constant griping, moaning, and whining. I am fortunate that I am able to speak my voice in our community, but I cannot imagine how difficult it is for the people who work on OUR behalf for IBM i, to see the behavior of the IBM i community in 2016. It is, frankly, ridiculous and unsupportive. Next time you meet an IBMer, thank them for IBM i. Maybe you can start there?

Look, I can take a lot of heat. I grew up in Australia, where you are used to taking shit from other people. And I have enjoyed being able to handle the heat for other people in our community. My reputation as “IBM i policeman” is quite misinformed, but probably founded in my behavior with the addition of gossip.

A decade later, and nothing has changed. OK, there is more awareness, but the name debate continues like it matters. In the last few weeks, this is a small sample of what I have personally encountered.

1. One member of our community has repeatedly referred to the platform as anything but IBM i. When approached, he promises to step up. Still, his own web page says he worked on something called i5 – which is not actually something that ever existed (for a month – I’ve told that story before). He refuses to use the correct branding even now, insisting that using IBMi (no space) is better than IBM i (correct). His argument appears to be that he knows better than IBM and he prefers no space – apparently that makes it easy for him to type. So, his arrogance overrides the use of the correct branding? This is bullshit. And, when I called him out on it on a forum, he ran away because he was offended. His defenders suggested he was helping the forum and contributing, yet it was clear he was using it as his own support forum when he ran away on such small provocation. If he thought the forum was more important than his ego, he would have stayed. Seriously? It’s time for me to stop dealing with that egotistical bullshit.

2. A vendor discussed with me how he had approached IBM to support a framework he liked, and asked them to run it on System i. His entire conversation was about System i. When I asked him why, he said the name “did not matter”. When I explained to him that Power Systems was a NEW platform, not a System i renamed, he told me that he did not know. After eight years, you have still not noticed what your own platform is? Seriously? It’s time for me to stop dealing with that ignorant bullshit.

3. Attendees in my sessions at the recent COMMON conference were asked if they had even been to the IBM i home page recently. The percentage who had was less than half the audience in every session room. Seriously? It’s time for me to stop having to point out this obvious bullshit.

4. Attendees in an IBM session at the recent COMMON conference complained that IBM does not market the IBM i platform. This was following the COMMON Opening Session, where a video was played that was marketing IBM i. And, it seemed, the complainers had not noticed all the social media marketing that has been happening for several years. They complained there was no “airline magazine” marketing – a seriously ignorant response that has been debunked over and over for more than a decade. Seriously? It is time for me to stop arguing with those people who are not paying attention and still seem to want to spread bullshit.

5. My Twitter responses to use of old branding has come under fire (again) as of late. Apparently, because I point out that AS/400 is dead and IBM i is the successor, my approach is perceived to be too harsh and divisive. My argument has always been that holding hands and singing Kumbay-i has not worked. My second argument is that if my noise is too harsh and divisive, then step up and spread love and peace. Yet, the complainers continue to complain about my approach, but do not step up to drown out my “noise”. Seriously? It is time for me to stop making noise when no one else is willing to step up and join the lead the promotion of the platform.

6. Every time I write a reasoned and educated article or blog entry about IBM i, I mention that it needs to be used in a modern way. I argue that using the correct branding is ONLY the start of that process. I spend a lot of time reasoning about modernization of applications, modernization of developer skill sets. I present many sessions on how to move to a modern IBM i world, and then I get this kind of idiotic response: “If it looks like duck, walks like a duck, then it is called a duck, and shot like a duck”. I was even schooled by an Italian that a “rose is a rose by any other name”, but in Italian, so it looked far more classy than the lame excuse that it is. Seriously? It is time for me to stop listening to unoriginal excuses, lame complaints, and misrepresentation of my position.

This, is the tip of the waah-waah iceberg. If I even slightly offend ANYone in this community, they run off to find gossip about how I “shout obscenities at people in public for using the wrong name”. Bullshit. I use obscenities, I am very passionate about the platform, I have lots of energy I devote to promoting the platform, and all I get is schoolchildren behavior because your feelings were hurt?

As much as there have been successes in my attempts to promote IBM i, promote using IBM i in a modern way, and promote the correct use of the branding, it always seem to become personal. And yet, it is not. In any way. The issue today, is that it HAS become personal in a new way.

Certainly, the community needs to step up and UNITE behind IBM i, paying attention to the branding, paying attention to using all the features and functionality of a modern IBM i. This has always been my desire.

But today, it becomes personal, because people are focusing on ME. They spend much time and effort in refuting my efforts, in attacking me, and finding gossip to spread. I get the blame for some of the most inane nonsense in this community, despite every effort. And I am sure most of those who are talking smack about me have one of my buttons, one of my stickers, or have copies of one of my presentations. They may even have a copy of my book.

So, instead of focusing on IBM i, it has now become all about focusing on feeling miffed at me, and that is no longer good for IBM i.

I presented to the COMMON Annual conference this week, on a session called “How to be an IT Survivor”. It was one of my many ways to encourage the IBM i faithful to step up and learn more skills than those which have kept us in a long glorious green programming career.

In that session, and several others, I asked who had called the platform – which today, is IBM i – by any other name in the last few weeks. Over half the audiences had used one of the old brand names. I asked who was still using SEU, and that was more than a third of the audiences.

All in all, I presented six sessions, most of them promoting IBM i and encouraging the attendees to step up and use the platform in modern ways, using modern tools, modern languages, and delivering modern applications. I promoted COMMON on Facebook and Twitter to encourage the IBM i faithful to learn new skills and step up.

I spent my own money on having IBM i buttons and stickers printed and distributed – to promote the platform. I had a t-shirt printed with my “IBM i dammit” cartoon and donated it to the COMMON Education Foundation for their silent raffle. I worked to create a new kind of speaking event at COMMON, to allow a voice for IBM i speakers to grow and be heard.

Much of my time was spent talking to IBM i customers, software vendors, and business partners, about the value of IBM i on Power, and the future of the platform. I convinced one vendor who referred to the platform as System i repeatedly that Power Systems was a NEW platform, not just a rebranding, but only after he said “no one ever told me”.

I saw attendees ask IBMers where the IBM i home page is to be found. I heard attendees use complaints that are so out of date, it was exasperating – including the “must have an ad in an airline magazine” bullshit. I saw IBM present a video promoting IBM i and then complaints about the “lack of marketing” from IBM. I heard attendees call the platform every name but IBM i, and tell me it was ok.

Before the conference, I worked to help one of the younger IT Professionals in our community attend the conference. While I was not solely responsible, I was able to assist in bringing Liam to the COMMON conference and spread his enthusiasm. And when Liam posted a long detailed blog of his amazing experience, the first comment he got was “However much I love the platform and live on it myself, I am finding Trevor’s approach too divisive and destructive for my appreciation.” His entire blog reduced to one inane comment from a poster who has decided to remain anonymous and throw potshots at me – unrelated to the incredible blog post.

It seems like the community has become myopic, lazy, or plain ignorant. As far as the ignorant anonymous poster goes, my approach to the platform is to promote IBM i. What could be perceived as divisive or destructive is my directness towards those who refer to this platform as though it were something else.

The platform is IBM i. It runs on Power Systems hardware – a NEW server since 2008. Our platform is NOT AS/400, iSeries, System i, i5, i5/OS, OS/400, Series i, Power i, i5Series, or any other name that lazily falls out of someones mouth. I promote the platform without division or destruction, but I do tend to be overt and direct with those who promote some OTHER old platform. So, the poster got it wrong.

And, there is the issue that I have recently discovered with a lack of willingness to step up and counter my contention that IBM i should be referenced – and used – in a modern way. More people are gossiping behind my back about my perceived crimes. People who decide to be lazy and not step up, tend to feel like they have been punished by their mother when I call them out on their lack of support for the platform. So, like guilty insecure children, they lash out at me. Spreading bullshit that I shout obscenities in public to people who don’t use the “proper name” is laughable, but false. And, in fact, the reputation I have of calling people out at every utterance of “AS/400” is totally beyond reality, but makes for a good story.

In a recent interview, I spoke at length about the name, and how it is the starting point to promoting the future and value of IBM i. I also spoke at length about how the perception of the platform being old leads to many people using it in an old manner and delivering old – and old-looking – applications. I also spoke at length about the importance of being up to date on your developer skills, including expanding your personal developer toolbox and learning what the platform can and does do. Yet, the first comment was from someone who claims I should (and I paraphrase) “stop harping on about the name”.

We live in a new world of IT and applications. Yet some of us are still using old branding, building old applications, and spending time arguing rather than moving forward. This is not helping the platform – that thing called IBM i.

And spending time being pissed at me, gossiping about my perceived slights, and ignoring your own career, is simply just keeping you in the dark green ages.

Let me repeat my basic assertion. When you call the platform by an old name, it helps the enemies of the platform make inroads to migrating more of us OFF platform. When you use a modern name, it changes the perception of the platform – this week at COMMON, I heard (several times) that when people said “do we still have that old AS/400?”, and the response was “we replaced it with Power Systems”, the result was relief, confidence in IT, and a belief that the company was in good and modern hands. When you call the platform by its current brand – IBM i on Power Systems, there are few people outside the industry who connect us with the perception of an “old AS/400” and we live to fight another day. AS/400 is our glorious legacy, and now we can have a longer and even more glorious career in IBM i.

YOU just have to step up. What are YOU doing?

What can YOU do? First, get to know me. In person. Don’t make nonsense assumptions about something you have heard about me. Second, stop wasting time arguing about the right brand and just USE the right brand. Third, stop complaining to and about IBM that things are not being done, and roll up your sleeves and actively dive into the community. Fourth, stop talking and developing like it is 1999. Fifth, start watching social media – you know, that 21st century means of communication and marketing?

Support your platform.

Stop whining about me. I’m working my arse off. And not just about the name. Get over yourself.

Today – Tuesday April 12th, 2016, IBM announced IBM i 7.3 and IBM i 7.2 TR4. It is a BIG day.

And, today, IBM removed the old brands from their IBM i home page.

What was on the page:

What is now on the page:

And next, of course, they will remove the references in the title that say: IBM i (Power Systems software including AS/400, iSeries, and System i)

However, this is a banner day. We can now reference the page, and show vendors, customers, and the community that IBM itself is stepping up to IBM i!

What is annoying is the vendors who are not paying attention. In a recent defense of their lazy use of AS/400. twitter user @RedbournSystems claimed (among other things) “..,but AS/400 is still the most common term people use to search out our services & our marketing campaigns has to reflect”.

Certainly, one must attract customers and prospects with a marketing campaign, but leading with a brand that is 16 years old is a little confusing. In 2016, marketing campaigns should include elegant use of SEO to attract those who think they are still living in the last century, and lead with the current and future branding of the platform.

And in this sales pitch “blog”, the vendor Tools4Ever have decided to go full blown backwards into the last century and appeal to the old and the outdated:

The “blog” starts with much eagerness: “The AS/400, currently part of the IBM Power systems lineup, is one of the most successful mid-range computers in history. They can be found in many businesses, schools and hospitals, handling everything from HR to finance to general business applications.”

This is sad, and quite hilarious. The AS/400 is currently part of what??? Oh, I see – a history lesson is needed. I did respond, but do not expect much – just the usual inane defense against moving into 2016 and stepping up to IBM i. Maybe, like a recent responder told me: “You’re just wrong. Anyway, I have a business to run. Take care.”.

For posterity, here is my reply:“The day you posted this sales pitch, IBM dropped the brand AS/400 from its IBM i home page. http://www.ibm.com/systems/i.

AS/400 was replaced by iSeries in 2000 – 16 years ago. It still ran OS/400.
iSeries was replaced by System i in 2006 – 10 years ago. OS/400 was renamed i5/OS.

in 2008, IBM announced a NEW server platform called Power Systems, and brought the i5/OS operating system to this new platform and evolved it, rebranded it, and integrated it further with AiX and LiNUX – and called this new evolution of the OS by a new name – IBM i.

That was over 8 years ago.

Since then, several customers still use one of the old brands to refer to IBM i on Power Systems. Using those old brands is required for SEO, but you are not selling to customers who actually have AS/400 any more. It is time to step up to IBM i. Today is a good day to do it…”

Maybe you, too, can comment on this ridiculously outdated “blog”. The last time we ALL did it, the entire thing was removed – one small victory in the fight against obsolescence and lack of decent marketing skills in the 21st century!

I received this email today..
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On Dec 22, 2015, at 6:04 PM, Arie Neumann wrote:

Hi Trevor,

We are working on a fresh Long Island based immediate consultant to hire need for a Senior AS/400 Programmer Analyst . Located is eastern Nassau county.

Our client is looking for a professional with general AS/400 knowledge, working experience with RPG400, program rewrite, revision etc. If you have senior level experience in these areas please reach out to me right away.

I apologize if this position is not a good fit for your background/experience or if you are not local to the area.

If this position sounds interesting please respond with your latest resume as soon as you can. Please no calls at this time if there is a match my recruiting team will call you immediately.

“Technology Talent You Can Trust”
Founded in 1996, OperationIT (formerly Staff IT) is a national IT staffing and solutions company that specializes in the areas of Traditional IT, Help Desk, Enterprise IT and Creative Services to Fortune 1000 and mid-market companies.

If you would like us to temporarily suspend job offer notifications from us, please reply with “Suspend” in the subject line.
If you wish to permanently opt-out of job offer notifications from OperationIT (formerly Staff IT), please reply back to this email with the word “Remove” in the subject line.
Please allow 3-5 business days to be removed. OperationIT (formerly Staff IT), Corporate Headquarters, 534 Broadhollow Rd, Suite 460, Melville, NY 11747

5/117236
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

My reply
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Arie,

I appreciate your email.

However, I am an IBM i Professional.

In 2008, IBM created a new server platform called Power Systems, and at that time, moved the operating system formerly known as OS/400 and i5/OS to Power Systems and branded it IBM i.

If your customer still thinks it is an AS/400 – which has not been sold by IBM since the year 2000 – I expect they are behind the times and would not be able to offer an environment that is modern, up to date, agile, flexible, or creative. Working on old AS/400 applications would be worse than writing DOS batch files to run on Windows 10. IBM i can run RPG alongside PHP, Ruby, node.js, Python and connect MySQL databases to SQL tables on DB2 on i, but an AS/400 is stuck in a world 15 years old.

And, have you asked the customer what hardware and operating system they are ACTUALLY running? The chance of it being an AS/400 is pretty close to zero.

It is sad that there are customers who are not aware of how the platform has evolved into IBM i and have not embraced moving forward. It is much sadder that recruiters continue to use old and out of date branding to represent IBM’s best operating system for business running on the best server platform in the business world. It would be wonderful if recruiters could stay abreast of the IT world, especially IBM i, and attract new and amazing talent to the platform. Instead, we have ads for jobs on a platform from the 20th century.

Until the customer and yourself reference the platform as it is today and as it will be tomorrow – that is, IBM i – this position does not sound interesting in any way at all. It is a great fit for my skills as they were 15 years ago in 2000, however I have moved far beyond that and consider myself to be much more skilled than I was when I was an AS/400 consultant last century.

And that is sad for the platform, for your customer, and for your reputation as a recruiter who should understand the community in which they are engaged.

I wish you luck in finding an old person to code on your customer’s AS/400. I guess SENIOR is the correct honorific.
Trevor Perry
IBM i evangelist
Long Island resident
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Yesterday’s argument started when the partner called the platform “the AS/400” and when I challenged them, they said “well, that’s what the customer uses”. The chart – from the customer – actually said “iSeries i5” and the customer continued to call the platform “iSeries”.

In their second defense, the business partner told me “well, it’s just easier to use what they are familiar with”. It took me back. All I did was say “IBM i” throughout the call. And no one objected, no one misunderstood. So, using the correct branding was “hard”? Not a single moment did the customer have a difficult time understanding my use of the current branding. They know what it is. They just have not stepped up yet. Using the “it’s easier” excuse is just – in my opinion- being lazy.

Now, if YOU were a business partner to an IBM i customer, wouldn’t you want them to know that they have a strong partner? A leader in the industry? The right recommendations for the future? By using the current branding, you show your leadership. You show how you are the true “partner” for the customer, that you have their company’s best interests at heart. And you cannot do this by making excuses and using old branding.

And what if another vendor or business partner turned up and used “IBM i” for everything. The moment you are compared to the “leader”, you are going to look rather out of date and obsolete. The customer will question whether or not you actually know the industry, whether you know the branding, whether you know the platform.

The irony was, the customer actually has a Power 6+ server, running IBM i 7.1. Yet their documents continue to say “iSeries i5” (an actual nonexistent platform) and the partner says “AS/400”. Confusing to everyone, it is truly an insult to call IBM i 7.1 by a name that is for an old piece of hardware. You are, at least, 9 years out of date with “iSeries” and 15 years out of date with “AS/400”.

Do you want to be recognized as a leader? Do you want to be a valued business partner for your customers. Do you want to show that you are up to date and representing the platform in the best interests of your customer?

Another day, another story about a company deciding to replace IBM i with a high cost, low reward migration. Another day, another story about how AS/400 is old and you should migrate. Another day, another complaint that “there is nothing I can do about it”.

But there is. Yesterday I posted this note to the IBM i Professionals forum on LinkedIn. https://www.linkedin.com/grp/post/1107217-6055130205872279552 The short version of the mentioned blog entry is that AS/400 does not do SQL, and AS/400 is dead so move to Windows. Both of these statements are quite false, but it is the kind of misinformation and untruths that are common in our industry.

It is quite a simple reason. There are not too many people who will make the effort to connect with people like this and counter their misinformation. So, my post on LinkedIn was to solicit support, and I posted a comment to the original blog entry. While my comment has not been “approved”, there are (at this minute) two more pro-IBM i comments on that blog entry.

So here is where you come in. If you see some nonsense post about our platform – promoting old brands, promoting a dead platform, spreading misinformation and untruths about IBM i, and so on, make some noise. I encourage you to post to your favorite online community group (IBM i Professionals on LinkedIn :-)), email your IBM i friends, tweet the world, and generally solicit some action against the noise.

Or, if you see something posted like this, respond with a note to show your support. Don’t make it personal, make it factual, make it informative, counter the misinformation, and generally be positive and educational about IBM i.

It will take a small commitment of your time. Yet, the louder the noise FOR IBM i, the better our IBM i future can be.

In 1988, System/34 and System/38 were replaced with AS/400. We universally accepted this amazing new server and never once referenced it by one of the predecessor names.

In 2008, System i and System p were replaced with Power Systems. We universally ignored this amazing new server and continue to reference the platform by one of its old brands.

What happened in that 30 years?

You. You happened. You, the person who uses the AS/400 brand and has 999 excuses for using it. It is, however, just a bunch of old and tired excuses. You never made an excuse when the AS/400 arrived. Why are you making excuses now? Easy. You are tired. You have been in this job a long time, and in 30 years, you have settled into your comfortable position. I expect there are a couple of holes in the seat of your chair where your butt cheeks fit. In 30 years, how much have you got off that behind and learned something NEW?

Did you know that IBM i has evolved far beyond OS/400? Did you know that IBM i runs on a NEW IBM server called Power Systems? Did you know that IBM i is now at a release called IBM i 7.2, which has already had 2 Technology Refreshes with major updates to the operating system, languages, database, security, etc.?

Did you know that IBM i can run PHP, Ruby, Python, node.js NATIVELY? Did you know that there are many NATIVE graphical user interfaces for IBM i? Did you know that IBM i is now managed using a graphical user interface tool?

Maybe you are one of the few who keeps up with the industry. From what I see, there is a severe lack of knowledge when it comes to the platform in 2015. In 1988, we did everything we could to learn this new amazing AS/400 platform, and in 2015, we think we know everything. And we don’t.

I ask you this question: What is wrong with calling the platform by its current brand – IBM i?

Look at all your excuses, and realize they are just that – excuses.
– IBM changed the name a few times. Since 2008, it has been IBM i and there are no plans to rename it.
– IBM did not change the name to annoy you personally. It was part of their overall branding strategy. Not good ones, as it turns out, but they have got back on track.
– IBM i is no longer OS/400 – it has evolved so far beyond what the AS/400 could do.
– IBM does not market IBM i specifically. It does market IBM i as part of their overall Power Systems marketing. This includes overlap from the money they are spending on Linux on Power.
– IBM i is an operating system. You don’t say “The Windows” and you don’t say “The IBM i”. That smacks of you thinking that the system is one box with everything in it. It is not. It is an Operating System that runs on a server named Power Systems.

And finally, get the brand right. It is IBM i. With a space.
It is not IBMi. It is not IBM-i. It is no longer i. It is not Power i. It is not AS/400. It is not iSeries. It is not Seriesi. It is not System i.

IBM i – the best operating system for business on the planet.
Power Systems – the best business server on the planet.

I received an email today titled “I Know Your Password” from IBM i iSeries & AS/400 Security News . You can read the web version of the email here:
http://campaign.r20.constantcontact.com/render?ca=b85bbed4-f6e4-4923-a4b5-7761ad3030d5&c=e3344840-62f9-11e3-b628-d4ae52844372&ch=e3d93ad0-62f9-11e3-b6f9-d4ae52844372

I was taken aback by the utter branding confusion throughout the email, and having talked to Dan in the past, I thought it was time for another attempt at reason.

Here is the response I emailed…
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
It’s time….

Now that it is 20i4, and IBM i has been with us for 6 years, it is time to start leading with the current and future platform branding – that is, IBM i.

While you continue to send emails out with iSeries and AS/400 as the subject, you are propagating the myth that there is some kind of question about the branding. And there is not. The platform is IBM i. It was, in the past, System i – then before that, iSeries – and before that, AS/400. And while some customers still think mistakenly that they have an old branded server, this is usually not the case.

Can I encourage you to step up to the platform’s future and start using the correct branding? That is, IBM i.

It is not “IBM i (iSeries and AS/400)”. It is not “iSeries and AS/400”. It is not “AS/400, iSeries, IBM i”. It is also not “IBM i, iSeries AS/400”. It is not “IBM i AS/400”. It is not “IBM i, iSeries”. All of these are found in this one email. It truly is adding to the confusion.

And, if you are the “Top IBM i Security Expert”, why would you be promoting old platforms that are considered out of date and dead now.

I understand the marketing requirement to attract the audience who thinks it is an AS/400 or an iSeries, but using those terms ONCE in your email or web page is sufficient for the search terms to be found. It is, in 20i4, no longer necessary to feed the backward thinking of that part of the community lost in the dark green ages.

It is time to step up to IBM i. Can you do it? The challenge is laid down…
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

How about you – have you a favorite brand abuser you would like to contact? If you are not up to it personally, feel free to comment the link/s here, and I will address the abuse.

An awesome thing happened this week, and I am sure you all heard about it since I, um not exactly subtly, SHOUTED it from the roof tops. Steve Pitcher mentioned iThusiasm in his blog! He contacted me the week before and asked permission which I appreciated and happily gave and leads me to my point.

For the record, I am doing this because of the appreciation and respect I have for this community. So if you are interested in using my “brand” or quoting me, or mentioning iThusiasm I am going to trust you to do so responsibly. Let me know so I can promote it, brag, put it in a scrapbook – but if you can’t get pre-approval from me that is okay. Yes, I’ve been on enough boards to know all too well, some people aren’t kind. And IF something is negative or used inappropriately I’ll address it then. Until someone proves me wrong, if you want to talk up iThusiasm then run with it. Except if there is potential monetization, if there is any chance of that remember, I have twins to put through college in 10 years 🙂

So onto the post I have been trying to complete for over a week –

As I move forward with my iThusiasm endeavor it makes sense to tell you why I am doing this.

Like others who write/present/volunteer, etc. in this community I started on the AS/400 early in my career. Loved the paycheck and respected the system then came to value the user community for support and education. While I have moved into QA (testing) and am no longer working on the IBM i exclusively I still find tremendous value from the energy and intelligence of people like you. Interestingly my husband is also a long time IBM midrange guy and he is far more a traditional (albeit progressive) Lead Programmer Analyst. While I follow many of the same people he does I am getting insight into technology, leadership, trends and their testing ramifications. He actually understands what is being discussed and implements the suggestions and techniques into his work. He also attended his first COMMON Conference in 1980 or 81- several more since then, and has been around OMNI a fair amount (Chicago’s Local User Group).

I find myself in a position of seeing both sides of things. The daily point of view I live with is that of an experienced, established programmer 30-something years into his career with all the frustrations that it can entail. Someone who needs the content produced in a very relevant way. Someone who has seen all the worst the ups and downs have wrecked on professions (and the confidence of the professionals in them). This has resulted in an attitude approximating “Dilbert.”

Then there is my opinion, someone who has decided being involved with these groups and writing about things is my idea of fun. And sincerely believes in the power of this community.

One question that has come up often this month, and not infrequently this year, is “what is…this thing you are doing? COMMON? OMNI? Is that like a group or a job?” This gets asked of us by friends and family since about four or five times a year I drop out of family life and my Facebook feed turns into all #COMMONug/Omni/#IBMi/ techie geek babble. Fortunately our friends don’t require comprehension to translate it into, “Von has fallen off the planet again -invite Drew and the kids for a play date/hang out with adults evening.”

Soon after we returned from Orlando we were at a gathering with family and “What is COMMON?” was asked. Just as I started to reply I was called away due to a juice box malfunction and handed off answering to Drew. He eloquently answered, “A User’s Group.”

Gee, thanks. That was useful.

In this case the solution was easy, I let the curmudgeon deal with child hydration and resumed the conversation. However, I started thinking about how many people would have a hard time answering that question. Especially when asked by a boss (why should you go?), co-worker who might attend an event (why should I go?), new hire who needs some education, spouse? (Really Honey, I know it looks like I am going to DisneyLand for a week without you and the kids but I promise not to have fun there…)

What is COMMON? A group of professionals who work on the IBM i or p operating systems on the Power Systems platform, which hosts multiple education events per year. The Annual Meeting and Expo in the Spring and Fall Conference are in person events delivering education, community building, and vendor exposure.

Anyone who gets that explanation already knows what COMMON is, right?

So here are my definitions. User’s Groups are a way for professionals in a given specialty to work together and get education on topics relevant to business. By forming a community and communicating with each other we leverage each other’s experience and knowledge to enhance our own efforts and deliverables. What does that mean? If I get stuck writing a new type of interface I know what blog to read, or send a note to someone I am connected to on LinkedIn, or ask a buddy to lunch and I get over the hurdle. Likewise, when I have found a great article on something our company has embraced as an initiative I pin it to the wall of my cube so my team members see it.

Conferences or Days of Education and the like are times to get more comprehensive education and exposure. There are times the attraction is getting full days worth of information on topics like PHP, Modern RPG, SQL, new IBM releases from the best minds delivering that content. Other times attending is beneficial to new employees, people changing departments or becoming crossed trained. They come with their colleagues to an event and get exposed to all the technology that feels foreign. It is a great introduction/foundation and allows the team to bond during down time and social events.

In the case of the conversation I stared referencing a cool thing happened. I described our platform as “used to be the iSeries or AS/400.” Prompting our friend to exclaim, “AS/400! I used to work on one of those, saw them all over the place.” We told him it is still around and he went on to say he hadn’t seen a Green Screen in ages. Which of course led to talking about nothing needs to be Green Screen anymore (except for that one person in one department that won’t believe it is correct unless it looks exactly the same…) The neat thing about this was it gave Drew a chance to talk about what he actually does as a programmer, something the people who like him are interested in. And it is cool how powerful a robust BUSINESS MACHINE coupled with strong programming skills is, there is a lot there to talk about.

My question to you is – what does the user community mean to you? What would you like to see from User Groups? Are you involved in your Local User Group, do you have one? What sparks your iThusiasm…?

DISCLAIMER: all thoughts and opinions are solely that of Yvonne (Von) Enselman. There is no approval from any group I may serve or my employer. (Specifically COMMON a User Group, OMNI User Group, and Kronos)

Arguing with another set of suspects on LinkedIn IBM i Professionals, I discovered that people who continue to use the AS/400 branding are lazy. They don’t care to spend a small amount of effort to learn something new about their own platform. They see branding as “I don’t care” or “it doesn’t matter”. And then they spend hours arguing about why “I don’t care” or “it doesn’t matter”. Imagine how amazing our platform would be if the lazy AS/400 programmers spent their time learning, education, and promoting the IBM i platform rather than defending their laziness.

OK, so ‘lazy’ is harsh. It is just fear – them being afraid of change. No. Wait. Lazy is not so much of a stigma as fear. Lazy it is.

What is your experience when trying to get a died-in-the-wool AS/400 programmer to up their game and modernize their (a) use of branding, and (b) skill set??

There have been a lot of people who have complained that you cannot google “i”. And, while this is just a complaint, it has merit. No matter that the platform brand was given to us as “IBM i” when it was announced – so many years ago now, people are still ignorant of the branding requirements of any web search engine.

It is becoming clear that the average IBM i programmer really does not give much of a crap after they have finally worked out it is no longer an iSeries or an AS/400. Take our favorite midrangemailing list. This week, we have had these two headlines posted to the group.

Any Problems Foreseen Copying Certicate Store from One i to Another i? {link}

How are we supposed to google “i”? Well, we should not have to, unless the ignorant continue to post web conversations without using “IBM i” in their subject or content.

The second part of this equation is what you should use to search for IBM i content? There are two schools of thought, one says use quotes around “IBM i”, the other says there is no need for the quotes. So, I tested. Here are the first pages of the results. As you can see, quite similar. I encourage you to test for yourself.

In my web navigation, I try to avoid the AS/400 mines laid everywhere – mostly from ignorance and stubbornness. I am constantly surprised at all these smart technical people stuck in the far past. I understand it is human nature to close down as you get older, and live in a shrinking comfort zone of your own choosing. But, seriously, there has to be some limits.

Take this attempt at an April Fool’s joke posted THIS year on this site! Titled “IBM Eyes End of Support for AS/400“, it was meant to scare people into thinking IBM was dropping the platform. The first paragraph showed the true colors of the poster: “Well, sure. Someday. Everything becomes unsupportable eventually. But not to worry. Nothing imminent. Just a little April Fool’s humor to get your day going.“.

Let’s review. If we assume the platform is called AS/400, this might be funny. Let’s assume the platform is not called AS/400 and has not been called AS/400 for FOURTEEN years. Actually, that is not an assumption, but the reality. So, the humor part turns out to be “Well, sure. Someday.” – because IBM dropped support for AS/400 many many somedays ago!

Seriously, April Fool’s is turning out to be full of fools lacking the actual funny part.

Now, if only this particular fool would step up to IBM i and promote a platform that IBM is actually still supporting, I may not get as much crap on my feet from stepping on so many internet land mines…

We live in a world of fast paced technology innovation, yet there is a large part of the IBM i community who are stagnant and lost in the past. Recruiters are in a unique position to help move our platform forward, yet while companies and programmers continue to use old branding in reference to IBM i, those recruiters tend to follow along. It would seem they would rather have the business – and the money – than take a risk and educate their customers on what is happening in the IBM i world. Twitter is full of #AS400 hashtags proclaiming all the available jobs on that old platform. This indicates a mentality of headhunter, as opposed to professional recruiting.

This week, I discovered an email promoting iSeries from a recruiter. Their page is here. I found they have no Twitter presence (supporting my theory that AS/400 and iSeries programmers don’t use social media). Surprisingly, they have a Facebook page, where I posted a plea for them to step up to IBM i. Here is what I wrote:

Your pages and advertising lead with AS/400 and iSeries. However, the hardware platform was replaced 6 years ago with the IBM i OS running on Power Systems – that is a lifetime in IT. When you use old branding, you are not supporting the future and direction of the platform, you are encouraging some of the community to wallow in the past. You are showing an unprofessional lack of knowledge about what you are selling and you are not supporting all those developers who want to move into the future and not live in that ‘glorious’ past.

What would it take for you to consider changing your marketing direction with an emphasis on the future? One where you lead with IBM i and where you use AS/400 and iSeries for SEO or as a reference to the past only. One where you educate the customer about the IBM i and Power Systems platform – rather than denigrate the platform by allowing the uneducated customer to drive the conversation and us back into the past?

Our platform is incredible. Calling it an old name makes it look old and not so incredible. The community often needs a nudge to head to the future. You, as a team of ‘professionals’ and ‘consultants’, can either consult and be professionals, or headhunt. Until you recruit IBM i resources, you will remain just headhunters…

Please step up to IBM i and its future.

If you visit that Facebook page, surprise, surprise – my comment has now disappeared.

Let’s all call our local recruiters and enlist their help in promoting IBM i and its future. Let’s talk to them about how damaging it is to continue using old branding. Let’s help them understand that the old branding could be used as SEO or ‘past experience’ requirements, but the jobs and recruitment activity should lead with IBM i.

Until recruiters get their own spine and stop headhunting, let’s tap a few on the shoulder and turn them to point in the right direction!

COMMON’s Annual Meeting And Exposition 2014, held in Orlando, wrapped up about 2 weeks ago. My voice finally recovered early this week, and I am down to less than 500 emails I need to deal with. If I spend most of the holiday weekend doing laundry and sleeping my household should be back to about normal come Tuesday. While it would be impossible to keep up that level of activity, education, interaction, and going out for any more than a week I know I don’t want to let go of my experience.

While I was still in Florida I was getting connection requests via social media, finding new people and companies to follow on Twitter, looking into some of the great vendors who supported the event. I started organizing my notes and cards, favoriting articles, and all the while certain comments kept resonating in my heart. I don’t want to wait until Indianapolis in the fall, or Anaheim next spring to connect with my new friends. I want some way to share the great materials that keep me engaged throughout the year.

Since I became involved with COMMON 2 years ago the most consistent comment people have made to me is they like my enthusiasm. They see, quickly, after meeting me, that I truly believe in this platform and community and I want to do everything I can to keep it strong.

iThusiasm!

From Merriam-Webster

Enthusiasm: Strong excitement about something: a strong feeling of active interest in something you like or enjoy

: something causing a feeling of excitement and active interest: a hobby that someone feels enthusiastic about

Full Definition

1a: belief in special revelations of the holy spirit

1b: religious fanaticism

[NOTE: pretty well sums up my reactions to Trevor Perry’s sessions…]

2a: strong excitement of feeling: ARDOR

2B: Something inspiring zeal or fervor

[NOTE: Ardor? Maybe a little much but I have come to care deeply for many of the friends I’ve made. And as a Quality Assurance professional my appreciation for the stability of the IBM i approaches fervor..]

iThusiam is my vehicle and brand to communicate my opinions and support for the IBM i on Power Systems, the professionals who support it and are supported by it, and the user groups (both local and large) that bring us together. It is a way for me to share the links that show up in my feeds and lead to great articles and opinions. It is a place to be honest about things like how cool it was to meet Amanda Blackburn after reading her posts on Facebook for well over a year. It is a way to share the energy we get from each other, and hopefully to attract and support the next generation.

Mostly I want to champion the amazing community I have found myself in and share the efforts of so many bright and interesting individuals.

DISCLAIMER: all thoughts and opinions are solely that of Yvonne (Von) Enselman. There is no approval from any group I may serve or my employer. (Specifically COMMON a User Group, OMNI User Group, and Kronos)

I wrote this piece for the December 2013 COMMON Connect magazine. I found it again in an unrelated google search, and thought it should be reposted..

Enjoy!

Everyone knows our platform is the best business platform on the planet. Period. No matter what other server proponents say, we have the best return on investment, the best scalability, the best reliability, and the best applications. Yet, we seem to be constantly fighting a battle against competitors and naysayers, who tell the world we are out of date and no longer relevant.

Running IBM i on Power Systems affords us many advantages. From a virtualization perspective, Power Systems provides complete integration with multiple IBM i instances and other operating systems. Live Partition Mobility and HA/DR offerings allows us to deliver, manage and support IBM i 24×7 without regard to the physical server location. In the recent Technology Refresh 7 for IBM i 7.1, RPG is now a completely free format modern language, which suits business better than any other language. Ruby on Rails is now native to IBM i, adding to the strong PHP adoption over the last few years.

Why then, does the world appear willing to move companies away from this incredible platform? The answer requires us to be introspective. If you ask any community member, the majority will respond and aim blame squarely at IBM – whose faults, it seems, are many. Which is ironic, given they are the provider of this wonderful platform. If we look closely at our community – and that includes each and every one of us, you
will find a level of dysfunction afforded to most families. Discuss the platform with a random sampling of community members and you will hear a plethora of responses.

At the Enterprise2013 conference, at least six names/brands were mentioned when talking about the platform. Five years in, many people still do not realize that Power Systems is a new platform – not just a rename or a rebranding. Before listening to IBM i sessions, attendees were mixed in their opinion about whether or not the platform could “do that”, in reference to modern technologies, modern architecture, modern software solutions, etc.

When our own community does not have a consistent approach to what the platform is or what it can do, that becomes proof to the outside world that our platform is stuck in some dark age. It is beyond time for us to counter that. To us, individually and as a community, IBM i is a large part of our world. If we were to act as a united community, imagine how quickly we could expose the misinformation spread by the naysayers and prove to the world the value of our platform to an IT organization.

IBM will continue to market in their own time, their own ways, and with their own money as they see fit to suit their business goals. IBM i is simply one very small part of that picture to IBM.

Ask yourself if you are doing all you can to support and promote IBM i, along with your peers in your local community, and your IBM i family around the world. Your task, should you choose it, is to tell the world that IBM i on Power rules. Are you up for it?

Last night at a user group, I was given the excuse “It is still named Windows!”, in response to a discussion about the correct branding for the IBM i platform. And, this particular complainer was quite sincere. There seemed to be no purposed for this ‘excuse’, but a tired old platitude that had not quite worn itself down to nothing.

Having thought about it for a while, I realized something important. That complaint is about branding. It is about whether or not IBM should have rebranded. And quite simply, that argument is out of date. IBM ~did~ rebrand our OS to IBM i in 2008 to match their Power Systems branding. It is done, over, fait accompli.

It is 20i4, and we are still a bunch of whiners. What a sad state of the community. IBM i was branded in 2008, to represent a new evolution in our world. The hardware was now Power Systems, and our beloved platform was morphed into an operating system. Yet, six years later, we are still complaining.

Is it just because we are a bunch of old farts blowing in the wind? We did have passion for this platform once before. When the AS/400 was released, no one called it a S/38 or a S/36. Yet today, the same people who were so gung ho about the amazing AS/400, seem to have got stuck in the last century. With Power Systems, IBM i has evolved into an even better OS, become more integrated, can run inside a Pure System, and continues to evolve. What happened to the passion of all those AS/400 gung hos? Did it all just dribble out below the chair you are stuck in?

Just this week, a community pundit made the claim that if IBM gave them a commitment for at least ten years for IBM i, he would start calling it by the correct branding. This smacks of two nonsense things. First, starting about eighteen months ago, prominent IBM speakers showed charts with a commitment beyond 2025. The nonsense here is that this particular pundit is actually contributing to the world about the platform, yet has apparently missed one of the biggest stories yet? Second, the IBM i brand has now been with us for six years, and the AS/400 has been gone longer (14 years) than it was sold by IBM (12 years). Some of the community took six years to adopt the iSeries brand after the AS/400, so I expect we should see a turnaround in 2014. The nonsense here is that IBM’s branding is what matters, not what is deemed by an individual pundit to be “right” – especially when that pundit has ZERO marketing and branding skills.

All over the web, the IBM i community is flailing. The stubborn ignorance of the AS/400 Professionals LinkedIn group means we can still wallow in the past for as long as we like. And the complaints! Oh, the complaints. Even on the IBM i Professionals LinkedIn group there are a bunch of excuses and inane justifications about why we should still use the old branding. It is simply complaining. Whining. Seriously, it serves only one thing – that is, the outside IT community looks at the IBM i community and laughs. The platform detractors continue to use this against the platform – quite amazing, when you think how the platform can do so much that its own community does not even know all that it can do.

It is so obvious what needs to happen. Education. We need to combat the ignorance of the dark green ages, and bring the community into 20i4. For starters:

The AS/400 is dead.
IBM i is an operating system.
IBM i runs on Power Systems servers.

But are those living in the dark green AS/400 cave willing to venture out? For those who are listening, for those who have passion for IBM i, let’s plan on 20i4 being the year of education. Let’s spread as much information about IBM i as possible – its legacy, its capabilities, its future.

Are you up for it? There are a bunch of senior citizens who need their hand held while they grumble as they waddle into the light.

In a recent LinkedIn conversation, the discussion was divided into two camps. One was anti-RPG, the other pro-IBM i. Quite fascinating to see the attempt to spread lies and misinformation from the original poster, but given that their job is to move people away from the platform, it makes sense – albeit, imperfect.

What is bothersome is the complete lack of spine from our community. Here we have an anti-IBM i proponent being given a forum in a pro-AS/400 platform. The continued ignorance of the group’s name aside, it would be supposed that the forum comprises people who are FOR the platform. According to some of the commenters, it is the troll’s freedom of speech that gives him the right to post his fear and misinformation. While I disagree, there has certainly been some amazing pro-IBM i responses to the thread. Since the troll will reappear in a few months with his vomit, at least we see a strong level of support from a few members of the IBM i community.

The interesting perspective that has fallen out of this seems to point to a general malaise in our community. It is clear that small businesses do not have any IT Strategy. And, our community seems to not understand, or misunderstand, the concept of strategy in any sense – let alone for IT. Take for example, these two excerpts from the comments:

“As you said, it is entirely possible to gradually modernize from the inside out. … All we can do is lead the horses to water, and hope they choose to take a drink.”
“I’m an evangelist too. However, if my cheering sounded muffled it is because as an IBM i evangelist, I had to have my head buried in the sand.”

What fascinating and utterly ignorant perspectives. They seem to reflect the common complaint that “waah waah, they are taking away my IBM i”. What a lazy cop out.

Here is one simple truth. Leading a horse to water does not include a constant complaining that the management of your business did something with which you disagree. If you want to support the platform, lead the horse, bring the bucket, make the horse drink – push the horse into the water if nothing else works. Using hope as a business or IT strategy is quite ridiculous. Even though it has been proven not to work (over and over), there are a community of people who continue to rely on hope and wishing.

Here is another simple truth. If you are an evangelist, evangelize! Sticking your head in the sand means you do not understand what an evangelist does. If you find a barrier, push through it. If you find resistance, work to remove it. Evangelizing requires you to learn everything you can about the platform and educate everyone you can about the platform. Stopping for a moment is half-hearted at best, and totally dysfunctional to boot.

If you do believe in this platform, then it is your privilege to promote this platform. And that means talking about it to everyone. When you continue to converse with your users or customers in old vernacular, you show your ignorance and support only the platform’s past. When you make excuses about why you should or should not make a business case for IBM i to present to your company, you will lose your platform. One recent experience was at a user group where an individual complained that his company would not adopt PHP on i. I asked him how he went about it, and he said he asked his boss and his boss said no. I asked him where his business case was, and he said he had stopped trying to get PHP into the company. Certainly, presenting a business case can be a daunting task for a mere programmer, but the might of the IBM i community is behind all of us.

There is absolutely no reason for a single one of us to be intimidated by our position inside a company that would cause us to stick our head in the sand and hope for a miracle. It is time for the IBM i community to get a spine, climb to the top of the nearest boardroom table, and shout to everyone about our beloved platform.

The IBM i 25 event is to recognize and celebrate the 25th anniversary of the IBM i platform. It has many events and activities, all around the world. This page is an index of the activities around the event on the web.

One of the loudest complaints about the branding for our platform is that you cannot google the name. Certainly, you would be foolish to think you could google the letter “i” – which happens to be the actual brand name. The answer is simple: you google “IBM i” – quotes or not.

I contend that until we start using “IBM i” in our internet correspondence, we won’t be able to google anything. However, it seems that people are starting to get the concept. Many vendors are leading with “IBM i” on their websites, in their blogs, and in their marketing materials.

Yet, there are still many posters who forget that simple concept. Just this week, I read a thread on midrange-L titled “SSL and public facing web site on the i“. How will any google search find this? Even the content had no mention of “IBM i”, so in the final google result, this discussion will be lost for all time. We have to pay attention to this, especially if we are the ones complaining about the lack of google results!

Even the press in our “IBM i” industry tend to be conflicted about this concept. IT Jungle’s Dan Burger wrote a great article about the future of our platform, and used a neat title “i Is For Investment“. Of course, in the fourth sentence of the first paragraph, Dan mentions “IBM i”. And, it is mentioned thirteen more times in the article. Google will find it, but without the title including the branding, the importance level of this article in the search results will be much reduced.

The answer is twofold. 1. Stop complaining about not being able to google for information about our platform. 2. Start using “IBM i” in your discussion titles, your comments – all your public-facing internet correspondence.

Very soon, we will find our world has less complaining and far more information!

Would you consider assisting some of the rest of us in the community? We are trying to make a move from the old branding. Several years ago, we asked the manager/s of AS/400 Professionals LinkedIn group to upgrade the name of the group, and they flat out refused. All efforts since then, by various people, have failed to raise awareness of the fact that the platform is IBM i and runs on a new hardware server.

Our concern is that while some of our community doggedly stick to the old naming, those people also stick to old techniques of development and methodology. This leads to a perception in companies that our technology is outdated, and leads to more replacement of IBM i with non-IBM i solutions. Our efforts are to encourage the community to overcome their stubbornness and realize that the future of our platform is IBM i. Our efforts are to get those who see it as an AS/400 or iSeries, to see the platform in its current form – an OS that supports their OS/400 and i5/OS applications, but does so much more. A simple example is Live Partition Mobility – not something that can be done on an AS/400, and is one of the many amazing things that can be supported with IBM i.

To raise awareness of this, we have a quandary. Vendors specifically, need access to as much of their constituency as they can. AS/400 Professionals has almost 15,000 members. IBM i Professionals has more than 4,500 members, and both are growing around the same amount each week. Vendors need access to the “extra” 10,000 (or maybe 12,000 who don’t overlap?), so they want these people to listen to them. IBM wants to talk to them. Yet, most of them don’t see the platform as IBM i – thus, the quandary.

So, we need to make the AS/400 Professionals members aware that IBM i is our future. There have been various attempts to do so, but each of them has reached a complete pushback and negative reaction from the noisy members, those stuck far back in the AS/400 cave. One of the methods proposed is to leave the group in droves – but as I said, vendors feel they cannot, so the membership is growing. Another of the methods is to stop posting in the group – that appears to have failed also. The third way has been a little more successful, but needs to gain traction – someone posts an article or discussion in another group, and in AS/400 Professionals, posts a link to the discussion in the other group. That tends to have some more members join the other groups, so it works for awareness. In the long run, of course, we would simply like the AS/400 Professionals group to be renamed, and since they won’t, it needs to fade into history. And, as you are a proponent of our platform, surely you have some other ideas?

Unfortunately, there are prominent members of our community who continue to answer questions and contribute to discussions in the AS/400 Professionals group. You are one of them. You are visible, and you are regularly commenting in that group. The concept is, that while you continue to do so, you are promoting the thought that AS/400 is current, and that it is ok to continue to promote AS/400 (or is that de-mote?). This is not supporting the future of our platform, rather, it is telling the people who are stubbornly refusing to go beyond the AS/400 that it is ok to do so. And it simply isn’t.

Our community needs its leaders to support the future of our platform, otherwise, we simply don’t have a future. The tide is finally turning with vendors, who are now realizing that they should promote IBM i products and services, even though the audience is mixed between IBM i and AS/400 bigots. We need some people pushing forward, and that group is growing. Unfortunately, every time {your name here} posts an answer in AS/400 Professionals, it makes the rest of us have to work that much harder to combat “the name doesn’t matter” myth.

The name does matter, because it makes the world look at the platform differently. If outsiders see it as an AS/400, they won’t come. If graduates see it being used like an AS/400, they won’t come. If our own developers see it as an AS/400, they won’t move forward, and we will lose more. We need the community to promote IBM i and its future, and we need your help.

Can you assist in moving the perception of our platform from AS/400 to IBM i? It is time…